Xero reconciliation and troubleshooting

Xero reconciliation and troubleshooting

Xero questions come up quite often, particularly for new users, so we've gathered the common ones and their answers here, covering setup, invoicing, GL codes and reconciliation — to help you find what you need quickly.

Getting access to the Xero integration

To turn on the Xero Rapid Integration on your School admin home page, get in touch with our Customer Support team. Let them know the full name and email address of the administrator who needs access, and they'll take it from there.
Once that's arranged, a A Xero option will appear on your School admin home page.
  1. For full details, see: Initial Setup: Xero Rapid Integration
Our Customer Support team is also happy to talk you through setup over the phone if that's easier.

Viewing and approving your invoice in Xero

Once the Xero Rapid Integration is set up, navigate to your Kindo School admin home page. From there, click the Xero option and Connect to Xero to see a list of all invoices from Kindo. Select the one you'd like to process to create the draft invoice in Xero.
You'll find the invoice in Xero under Business (or Sales) → Invoices → Draft tab.
From there, you can work through the invoice, checking the fields against your requirements. Once you're happy with it, attach all the reports and invoices sent by Kindo for that billing period, and approve it.
  1. For full details, see: Creating, viewing and approving a draft invoice for Xero

Managing multiple suppliers or Xero organisations

If your school works with more than one Kindo supplier, you'll receive a separate weekly report per supplier, so the total payment won't match any single invoice. All supplier invoices need to be added together to reconcile against the total.
For schools that operate more than one Xero organisation (for example, a trust or hostel alongside the main school),to prevent errors it's important to log out of any organisation that isn't relevant before creating the draft invoice.

Supplier invoice not listed or visible

If an invoice isn't showing for a particular supplier, it's usually because that supplier isn't yet linked to your Xero. Our Customer Support team can get the supplier linked and showing on your list, so feel free to get in touch.

Processing a negative invoice from Kindo

Occasionally Kindo will send a negative invoice, meaning an amount is owed back to Kindo rather than the other way around. It's worth opening and actioning these as soon as they arrive, since they need to be paid or credited like any other invoice, not simply filed away.
Negative invoices can't be created directly in Xero, so if you're on the Xero Rapid Integration, you'll usually see an import error when one comes through. That error is a good trigger to come back to this section.
It's worth checking with your accounts team on how they'd like this handled: whether they'd rather raise a bill, or are happy for you to follow our recommended approach.
Depending on your school's internal process, you'll either need to create a bill for approval to pay Kindo, or, as we'd recommend, issue a credit note based on the details on the Kindo invoice.
Notes
The credit note's date needs to match the date of the negative invoice, so it reconciles cleanly.
Warning
If a negative invoice isn't paid within 7 days (before the next Thursday-midnight billing run), Kindo will automatically offset the amount against your next invoice. If your accounts team has already raised a bill to pay it off by the time that happens, this can result in paying it twice, so it's best actioned promptly.
  1. See our step-by-step guide: Xero Rapid Integration: how to process a negative invoice

GL code not showing on the draft invoice

If a GL code isn't showing on the draft invoice, it usually means the code hasn't been configured in Xero yet, or it doesn't match what's been entered in Kindo. Updating the GL code in your Kindo system so the two line up should resolve this for future invoices.

Why doesn't my invoice balance?

Kindo's billing cycle runs Thursday midnight to Thursday midnight, with invoices sent out on Friday. If you reconcile on Friday morning and notice your Kindo clearing account doesn't match what's on your weekly invoice, it's usually one of the following:

  1. An error when entering an amount in Kindo's Point of Sale page. Pulling the POS Reconciliation / Transaction History reports from Kindo and comparing this against the payments received via the bank can help narrow this down.
  2. An amount recorded in the clearing account that isn't linked to a charge. Only Kindo charges need to be receipted through Point of Sale.
  3. A payment that falls outside the billing cycle. A payment banked on a Friday, or an EFTPOS payment taken on Thursday but not processed until Friday, misses that week's cutoff, so it will show in the Kindo clearing account as extra without appearing on that week's Kindo invoice. It's included in the following week's invoice instead.
  4. A GST setting that differs between Kindo and Xero. GST is set at the GL account level in Xero, so if a GL code is set to include GST in Xero but the same item is marked as GST-exempt in Kindo, the invoice will follow what's set in Xero, not Kindo.
  5. Cash sitting in the safe rather than banked. As schools take less cash over time, some move to banking less often, for example monthly, so cash can sit uncounted for longer between banking runs.
  6. If your school is bringing over family credit balances from your current School Management System, ensure you have completed a journal in your accounting system first. Full instructions for your accountant below:

Notes
Banking cash and processing POS payments before the Thursday cut-off avoids most timing mismatches. Your POS reporting can be run at any time, not just after the weekly cut-off, so it's worth checking it regularly to track any payments still waiting to be processed.

If those don't explain the gap, this checklist covers the rest:

  • For new schools, confirm your journals have been transferred over from your previous accounting system.
  • Check your POS Reconciliation and Transaction History reports against bank receipts, cash and all payments, line by line.
  • Check your GL codes are mapped to the Kindo clearing account, not coded to the actual GL.
  • Check your GST settings in Xero.


Warning
Kindo codes each item directly to the GL code entered in Kindo, so it's important not to also code Point of Sale items to the item's own GL code. Doing both will double up the coding, which is a common cause of an unbalanced invoice.

If you've worked through this checklist and you're still not balancing, it's best to loop in your accountant from here. Our Customer Support team is always happy to guide you through the checklist above, but reconciling accounts or giving accounting advice isn't something we're able to do.

Notes
Trouble creating your Kindo invoice in Xero can sometimes happen when another supplier's invoice in your Xero system already uses the same invoice number Kindo is trying to use. If that happens, our Customer Support team can help, just get in touch with the error message and they'll get it sorted.

  1. For a full walkthrough of the accounting side, including general ledger setup, a worked example, and how POS payments appear on your invoice, see: POS Accounting Simplified

 

Contacting the Customer Support team

Email: support@kindo.co.nz
Phone: 0508 4 KINDO (0508 454 636)
Hours: 7.30am – 4pm, Monday to Friday